1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to point-of-purchase display and dispensing of merchandise and pertains, more specifically, to apparatus for enabling the display and ready dispensing of serially arranged merchandise packages at plural dispensing tiers at a point-of-purchase dispensing location.
An ever-increasing variety of packaged merchandise offered for sale at points-of-purchase locations along store shelves has led to a requirement for better organization of such merchandise. Among the more prevalent display and dispensing apparatus currently in use on store shelves are those employing pusher-track assemblies to advance serially arranged merchandise packages along a path of travel to a dispensing location placed at the point-of-purchase. Accordingly, in many retail sales environments, pusher-track display and dispensing devices are placed upon shelves at point-of-purchase locations.
2. Description of Related Art
Because linear shelf space at such locations usually is at a premium, the placement of pusher-track display and dispensing devices, under current common practice, is restricted to selected, assigned segments of the length of a display shelf, thereby taking advantage of only the limited linear space available along an assigned segment of shelf length. It would be advantageous to be able to utilize as much of the shelf space as possible, of that space made available at any length of shelf space assigned to a particular product to be offered at a point-of-purchase location. Most present display and dispensing devices which utilize a pusher-track assembly system are not constructed so as to take full advantage of vertical space available above a display shelf while still providing the versatility of modular construction to accommodate a variety of different products offered in merchandise packages.